Our tournament got off to a rough start despite the ebullient mood in the locker room before our first match. We faced Nazionale Italia and lost 1-0. If I am being honest, we were lucky to have given up only one goal. The weather was wet and chilly at kickoff time. We did our customary half hour warm up. These guys walked out of the club house with no warm up and beat us like a drum. I did manage to make a breakaway down the right wing and put a cross into the box and onto the head of our striker. It was my only productive moment of the game. Unfortunately, it was a little behind my teammate who had to step back to get his head on it thus losing all power on the shot.

Our second match started less than ten minutes after our first one ended, and our fatigue was apparent. We lost this match 0-2 to S.P.V. Master Team PD in their first match of the day. Realistically, this is a game we could have tied or won, but luck was not on our side.

Tomorrow we play another two matches, this time without our star striker, who has a strained Achilles tendon, and our manager/striker, who is headed for the UK to watch his son graduate from college tomorrow.